Category Archives: Politics

So tedious a thought is it that I might have to spend four years prefacing my every comment with the same words, again and again, that I might have a t-shirt made up: “#NeverTrump, I didn’t vote for him—buuuut…” Rich Lowry has a pretty good piece in the National Review this morning, arguing against what […]

It is fair to say that literally no one in Britain’s first, second, third, or fourth estates saw Leave’s victory coming in this year’s referendum, just as virtually no one on the American left (it would be redundant to add “and media”) can imagine Trump winning. But there the analogy stops. In Britain, there was no empirical […]

Like Neoavatara, I, too, can tell you the effective date of my membership of the Republican Party: August 31, 2004. The party was, as I understood it, a coalition of conservatives and libertarians. I was new to the country, and when the future Governator spoke to the GOP convention, he specifically addressed immigrants, and as a […]

The Iowa caucuses are just under a week away. It’s not my place to tell anyone for whom to vote, but I will tell you that if I were in Iowa, I would be caucusing for Carly Fiorina. I rank politicians—bishops, too, by the way—on an unforgiving scale: Rare indeed is one who makes it […]

This term, I look an economics class, and our final papers afforded an opportunity for me to revisit a subject that used to be nearer and dearer to me than time now allows: The travails of the Russian economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the lessons for us of that experience. Demands of time […]

Ordinarily, when a treaty is proposed, the question is “will the Senate ratify it?” So what’s all this “sixty day review period” business in regard to the Iran deal, and why is President Obama talking about vetoing what Congress does? Here’s the skinny. In 2010, Congress enacted sanctions on Iran, subject to waiver by the […]

A week ago, with Governor Jindall’s admission of his candidacy, I promised that if one more Republican ran for President, I, too, would seek the GOP nomination. I’m a man of my word. Given Governor Christie’s entry into the race three days ago, I hereby announce my candidacy: I will walk for the Presidency. (My heart, like Governor Christie’s, aches at […]

This morning, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) announced that he was running for President; a similar announcement from Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is expected soon. During the time in which each man flirted with such a bid, questions of their eligibility to that office were raised. Since 2008, the natural-born citizen requirement of Article II has received renewed attention; people […]

Like Professor Garnett, I am skeptical of the “joint editorial” of various Catholic publications that purports to call for an end to the death penalty. The authors are not coy about the context that prompts their comments: Later this term, the Supreme Court will hear Glossip v. Gross, in which recent lethal-injection protocols are challenged. I dissent because […]

Republicans are always keen to charge Democratic Presidents with executive overreach, and vice-versa, especially when the White House is occupied by an especially-despised and aspirational President. But in the handwringing over moves to limit access to certain kinds of bullets, some critics have backed a lame horse. The Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended, bans […]